ll lllllllllllllllll l l lll lll 1 111 111111 1 111 111 1 ... · 1996 Apr - 1996 Oct M. F. Corcoran (5030-02A-39) To: Michele Barton From: Dr. M. F. Corcoran Activity: 5030-02A-39

NASA-CR-202569

High Energy Astrophysics Program

Contract No.

NAS5-32490

_ll_lllllllllllllllll__l_l_lll_lll_______1_111___111111_1_111_111_______1_1_Li__ll_llllllllllllllllllllllllll__ll__11ll______llllllllll____1_____lIlllllllllIIIHIIIlllllllllllllllllllllIIIHIIIIIIMUMIIIIIIlllllIIIIIIlll

/'/

/_, .....

Technical Report

for

April 1, 1996 through September 30, 1996

1Ll_lu_llllllllllulllllllllllll_lll_lI_l_l_llllll_l_l_mM_l_l_ll_ull_l_HH_H_l_H_l_ll_ll_lu_ll_H_llllllllllllll_l_ll_MuM_l_l_llllll_l_1LL_llllljby

Universities Space Research Association

Mail Code 610.3

Building 26, Room 215

NASAJGOddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19970006973 2020-07-29T03:05:27+00:00Z

Task Activities under Contract NAS5-32490 during the Period of

April 1, 1996 through September 30, 1996.(individual project reports are attached on the indicated pages fisted by task number)

Page Number TaskNumber

1-3

4-7

8-11

12-13

14-15

16-17

18-19

20-22

23-24

25-26

27-28

29-30

31-32

33-34

35

36-37

38

39-41

42-44

45

46-47

93-0......11 Angellini, Lorella

Corcoran, Michael

Drake, Stephen

93-03 Ebisawa, Ken

Gotthelf, Eric

Mukai, Koji

93-0.__._4 Day, Chades

93-0......55 Giles, A. Barry

Strohmayer, Tod

93-0.......27 Christian, Eric

93-0_....99 Barthelmy, Scott

93-1....._00 Palmer, David

93-12 Esposito, Joseph

93-1_...._4 Chan, Kai-Wing

Soong, Yang

93-1.....66 Madejski, Grzegorz

93-1..._.27 Loewenstein, Michael

93-1._...88 Boyd, Patricia

93-2._._0 Barrett, Paul

Macomb, Daryl

Shrader, Chris

University Space Research Association Goddard Visiting Scientist Program

Employee name: Lorella Angehni Task Number: 5030-01A-39

Software Development and maintenance

XRONOS: Two versions of the software are currently available one under XANADU and a second under

FTOOLS. The two versions will be maintained in parallel until all the XRONOS-XANADU applicationswill be moved under FTOOLS. In the last semester I have been working towards a distribution of the

software compatible with both environments. This involves changes in how the FTOOLS programs areset-up (environment variable) and build (makefile). I have made the following changes in the software:

i) the icmath task has been upgraded by allowing several error calculations on the results, 2) set-up of

an environment variable pick-up by the software for the standard plotting command files directory, 3) thefilename decoding routine allows now to import files with +/- character in the filename (convention used by

the XTE-ASM), 4) fix various fortran errors and warning due to portability issue across different platform.All these changes were included in the FTOOLS 3.6 release.

A new programmer, James Peachey, started working on XRONOS (end of september) full time. The previousprogrammer was only part-time on the project, not suitable for the project size.

I am working on a task that will correct data for the binary orbit. I am using this task for the analysis ofthe newly ASCA data from GX301 pulsar, and it will be part of the XRONOS package.

I have been maintaining the barycenter correction for the ROSAT project, and the new version with theupdated leap-second and spacecraft clock correction tables have been delivered to the FTOOLS ROSAT

subpackage for the FTGOLS 3.6 release. I made extensive tests of software using the Crab pulsar data takenfrom different years by ROSAT.

I have been working on a new task that will calculate the galactic Nh for a given position in the Sky,, Thetask makes use of the HII map obtained by Dickey and Lockman. The map includes the full sky. The task

is going to replace the current on-line version of a similar program which uses an HII survey not correct forthe galactic center.

XIMAGE: I have upgraded the point spread function command for the circle and box geometry. I have alsomade fixes in the software for reported bugs.

EXOSAT I have worked on the production of the second EXOSAT CD containing all the lightcurves, spectra

taken with the ME, GS, LE instruments on board EXOSAT in 3 years operations. The CD master copieswere made the beginning of May. I have written scripts to generate the gif files for spectra and lightcurve for

all the experiments (ME, GS, TGS, CMA1 and CMA2) and wrote the booklet which accompany the CD. Ihave coordinated the technical (B. Perry) and graphics (K. Smale) part for the final production. Additional

tests were required after the CD went in production, because I found a CD reading problem occurring onsome platform. The additional testing revealed bugs in the reading CD software of the following operatingsystems OSF/1 V3.2A (and lower version) and under Window 95.

I have updated the EXOSAT restoration WWW pages.

Other Restoration Data I have been monitoring the re-creation of the GINGA LACDUMP FITS files,

the ttEAO1 A1 data (B. Perry technical support) and the Einstein SSS lightcurves (D.Dawson technicalsupport). The GINGA files were completely re-made adding columns containing count/sec for all the inter-

esting quantities. Gif files were also created. All the data have been transcribed onto CD roms. I designed

the FITS format, provided scripts (based on EXOSAT data) for generating the gif files, and checked files

compatabilitywith theHEASARCsoftware.TheEinsteinSSSlightcurveswerere-generatedfollowingtheHEASARClightcurvestandardformat.I haveprovidedthesoftwareto translatefromtheoldrbf formatsto FITSandthescriptsto generatetheassociatelightcurveandspectralgif flies.I madeextensivetestsonthevalidityof theHEAO1A1data.

SAX I havemadeavailabletheapprovedlist of SAXproposalwhichincludesboththeCOREandtheGOtime.Thedatabaseis availableundertheHEASARCon-linesystem, W3BROWSEandthexrayaccount.

FITS Format: I havebeendesignedFITSfileformatfor theGINGALACdata,theHEAO1A1andA2experimentsandfortheSAXPDSexperiment(usedindirectmode).I gaveapresentationat theHEADCCmeetinginJuneabouttheHEASARCFITSconvention.

CommunityService:

• I reviewedthetechnicalfeasibilityforproposals,submittedthroughthe"AstrophysicalDataProgram"(95-ADP-09),whichmakeuseoftheHEASARCarchive.

• I servedontheAO2XTE proposalevaluationPeerReview(26-28August)asmemberof a galacticpanel.

Working Papersand Proposal:

• The ROSAT variable sky. Angelini, White Giommi. The sample of variable stars was obtained usingthe 'timing' imaging technique applied to all the sequence processed for the WGA catalog. After anaccurate screening of all sources with a chi 2 > 50, a sample consisted in 216 sources was obtained.

The spectra and lightcurves characteristics suggest that most of sources are probably flare stars with

a characteristics temperature of 1 keV. The sample also included peculiar objects such as AM Hers,Be star systems, soft AGN and QSO. Their spectral characteristics is different from the rest of the

sample. These results were presented by N. White in the meeting (17-18 October 1996) for a newpossible X-ray mission LOBSTER which will scan the X-ray sky.

• ASCA Observation of the Big Dipper. I analyzed the ASCA data of the Big Dipper, to study bothspectral and temporal characteristics. Results were presented at the conference Accretion Phenomena

and Related Oulflow, Port Douglas (July 1996).

• Periodicity in the WGA sources. I have analyzed the X-ray data of the newly discovered X-ray pulsarin SMC. This is part of the systematic search for periodicity in the WGA sources in collaboration withG. Israel and L. Stella.

• X-ray Spectra of LMXRB with Low absorption. I have analysed a sample of 5 LMXRBs with low

absorption. The source spectra reveal low energy line emission in the Oxigen band. This is quite

different from the energy line pattern found in others low mass X-ray binaries with higher luminosities,suggesting maybe different evolutionary scenario.

• XTE and ASCA. I was Co-I on two XTE proposals (AO2) and PI on one ASCA proposal (AO5).Both the XTE proposals have been accepted, the results for the ASCA proposals are not known yet.

Published Paper and IAUs:

2

* The X-ray Evidence that the 51 Peg Companion is a Planet, Pravdo, S.H, Angelini, L., Drake, S. A.,Stern, R. A., White, N.E., 1996, accepted May 9, New Astronomy.

• Archival Observation of the ultra-soft X-ray transient ._U1530-_7 Parmar A.N., Williams, O.P_, Ku-

ulkers, E., Angelini, L., White, N.E., 1996, Accepted August 5, A&A in press.

• An ASCA Observation of the X-ray Binary GX301-2 Saraswat, p., Yoshida, A., Mihara, T., Kawai,

N., Takeshima, T., Nagase, F., Makishima, K., Tashiro, M., Leahy, D. A., Pravdo, S., Day, C. S. 1E.,and Angelini, L., 1996, Ap. J. 463,726.

• Accretion Disk Coronae, White N. E. , Kallman T. 1_., Angelini L., in "X-Ray Imaging and Spec-troscopy of Cosmic Hot Plasmas", Ed. F. Makino, Tokyo, March 11-14, 1996.

* The Discovery of 13 s X-ray pulsations from the Hydrogen depleted subdwarf 06 star binary, Israel G.,

Stella L., Angelini L., White N., Giommi P., Treves, A., Kallman, T., 1996, Accepted August 1i:, Ap.J. L., in press.

• ASCA observation of 4U1624-49, Angelini L., Parmar A.N., White N.E., IAU Colloquium No. 163,"Accretion Phenomena and Associated Outflows", Eds. Dayal Wickramasinghe, Lilia Ferrario & GeoffBicknell, 15-19 July 1996, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia.

• The Nature of the "6-s" and related X-ray Pulsars: Evolutionary and Dynamical Considerations, P.Ghosh , L. Angelini, and N.E. White 1996, Accepted Oct 7, Ap. J, in press.

3

1996 Apr - 1996 OctM. F. Corcoran (5030-02A-39)

To: Michele BartonFrom: Dr. M. F. Corcoran

Activity: 5030-02A-39Subj: Semi-Annual Technical report, 1 Apr 1996 - 30 Sep 1996Date: 30 Oct 1996

PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITIES ACCOMPLISHED

1) ROSAT Public Data Archivea) In this period 975 US ROSAT datasets and 693 German/UK ROSAT data sets

were released to the archive. In this period 847 REV0/1 datasets were replaced byreprocessed REV2 datasets.

d) the ROSAT archive data lists have been updated to reflect recent ingests.e) Number of e-mail communications during this period: 655, including user

comments, data release and archive maintenance communications.

2) ROSAT Results Archivea) I wrote and am testing a prototype archive data browser for the HRI data. This

allows the user to access the database of screened, public data, set screening criteria, andplot X-ray sources on optical and X-ray images.

b) RRA data screening continues. 365 data sets have been screened at theGSFC in this period.

c) I continue to maintain the RRA Web page at GSFC(ftp://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/rosat/data/qsrc/www/RRA.html). This page contains the RRAUser Guide, software information and results of dispersion testing at the different

screening sites, among other links.f) Number of e-mail communications during this period concerning Results Archive

matters: 221

g) the 1st versions of the BROWSE data tables for the PSPC and HRI sources have

been compiled and implemented in BROWSE.

3) ROSAT Rationalized Data File developmenta) I helped Maia Good port the RDF software to the ALPHA environment and

tracked down some bugs.b) at the request of MPE we changed software to allow RDF conversion to be run

on proprietary All-Sky Survey data.c) Number of e-mails concerning RDF matters: 94

4) RGOF/HEASARC duties

a) The RGOF continued its series of bi-weekly meetingsb) number of e-mail communications regarding RGOF issues: approximately 297,

including user questions and internal RGOF problems.c) I produced the 6th volume of ROSAT images on CDROM (with B. Perry and

K. Smale). These CDROMS were distributed at the Jun AAS meeting in Madison, WI.d) I provided RGOF support to Richard Shubert during this period.e) I provided technical support at the ROSAT AO7 peer review in 15-17 Jul.

4


SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

1) I've taken the lead in organizing a "large project" of X-ray observations of OB and WRstars using ROSAT and ASCA. As part of this effort I was PI on a successful ROSAT

AO7 "large project" to look for correlated variability in X-ray and optical emission foryoung massive stars in the Carina nebula, including Eta Carinae.

2) I worked with Bish Ishibashi, a grad student from UMinn, who's been analyzing myXTE observations of Eta Carinae. Bish will continue to analyze new data as available, andwas a Co-I on a successful XTE proposal to continue monitoring Eta Car through 1997.Bish plans to develop the XTE analysis, along with optical spectral analysis under KrisDavidson, into a thesis project.

3) I was Co-author on 2 peer-reviewed papers in this period.

TRAVEL

1) I attended the HEAD meeting in May and presented a talk describing the Massive star X-ray observing effort.

2) I attended the AAS meeting in Madison in Jun and presented a talk on X-ray variabilitycaused by wind collisions in massive binaries.

3) I attended the ADASS meeting in Charlottesville and presented a poster on the ROSATResults Archive.

5


PAPERS

PUBLISHED:"ASCA Observationsof Gamma2Velorum( WCS+OgI):TheVariableX-raySpectrumofColliding Winds", I. R. Stevens,M. F. Corcoran,A. J. Willis, A. M. T. Pollock, S. L.Skinner, F. Nagase, and K. Koyama, MNRAS, in press.

SUBMITTED:

"Dynamic Processes in Be Star Atmospheres. VI. Correlated X-ray, Ultraviolet, andOptical Variations in Lambda Eridani", M. A. Smith, T. Murakami, H. Ezuka, B. G.Anandarao, A. Chakraborty, and M. F. Corcoran, ApJ, submitted.

PROPOSALS SUBMITFED/AWARDED

I was PI on an accepted XTE AO2 proposal to observe Eta Car ($14K awarded)

I was PI on an accepted ROSAT AO7 proposal to observe the Carina Nebula ($16Kawarded)

I'm PI on a submitted ASCA AO5 proposal to observe Eta Car with ASCA

1996 Apr - 1996 Oct

M. F. Corcoran (5030-02A-39)

PLANNED ACTIVITIES

1) Continue screening of data and population of ROSAT Results Archive andcreation/population of source catalogue.

2) Continue supervision of ROSAT Public Archive including ingest of WG data and ingestof REV2 data (the final archive product).

3) Continue guest observer support activities

4) Publish results of Eta Car X-ray campaign; also publish results on X-ray variationsfrom colliding winds in OB binaries.

5) Continue monitoring X-ray emission from Eta Car.

_7

SEMI-ANNUAL TECHNICAL REPORT FROM DR. STEPHEN A. DRAKE

CODE 660.2/LHEA:HEASARC RESEARCH SCIENTIST

1996 April 01 - September 30

WORK ACCOMPLISHED AND IN PROGRESS

(i) Science Related

- Guest Investigator Proposal Status

Of the 3 ROSAT AO-7 proposals of which I was Co-Investigator, 2 proposals PI'ed by Ted

Simon CU. Hawaii) and S. White (U. Maryland) were awarded observing time.

I submitted 1 XTE AO-2 proposal (to catch an RS CVn system undergoing a superflare) and it

was accepted. I submitted a budget for this proposal at the end of September, but have, as of the

date of writing, not been notified as to the amount of funds that have been allocated to it.

- Scientific Meetings

I attended the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS Meeting held in San Diego, CA

April 30 - May 03 1996. I gave a poster paper on the subject of "Abundance Measurements of

Late-Type Stellar Coronae: How Reliable Are TbeyT. At the beginning of the meeting there was a

special ROSAT Workshop on the subject of what the best uses of ROSAT observing time should

be in the few years prior to the launch of AXAF. I was asked and gave an oral presentation at this

workshop on the subject of'ROSAT HRI Observations of Stars in the Pre-AXAF Era'. This was

published in the ROSAT Newsletter that was published in the summer of 1996.

I attended the American Astronomical Society Meeting held in Madison, WI from June 09 - 13.

I gave a poster paper on the subject of "The Influence of Binarity on the X-Ray Emission

Properties of Cool Dwarf Stars: The 100 Pc Sample.' At the beginning of the meeting there was a

special session organized by the NRC's Task Group on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics: this

group, also known as the Thaddeus Committee, has been tasked by NASA to provide input on

what the priorities should be for NASA space science missions in the early part of the next

century. I gave a short oral presentation at this session on what requirements are needed for an X-

ray observatory in order for it to make significant improvements in our understanding of stellar

coronae and flares.

I attended the HTXS Workshop held in Boston, MA from September 30 - October 01 1996,

and gave an oral presentation entitled "High-Resolution, High-Throughput, Broad-Band X-Ray

Spectroscopy of Stellar Coronae and Flares: Sample Simulations'.

$

- Scientific Publications

These were listed in some detail in my recently submitted "Summary of Accomplishments'. I

have attached a copy of my (updated) bibliography for 1996 to the paper copy of this report.

-Refereeing and Proposal Reviewing Duties

At the request of Dr. N. E. White (HEASARC director), on April 12, I evaluated several ADP

proposals to use Einstein archival data at the HEASARC in order to estimate the potential impacton HEASARC resources.

In April 1996, I refereed a paper that had been submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics.

In May 1996, I reviewed a research proposal that had been submitted to the Division of

Atmospheric Sciences of NSF. In May to August 1996, I acted as referee for a paper that had

been submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL).

In June 1996 and in September 1996, I turned down requests to referee papers that had been

submitted to ApJL and Astronomical Journal, respectively (Enough is enough!).

In July 1996, I served as a ROSAT AO-7 Guest Investigator Proposals Review panel member

in.Tyson's Comer, VA.

- Other Science Activities

I participated in 2 meetings of the joint GSFC/SAO et al. NGXO/LAXSM Concepts Project

(now rechristened as HTXS), the first held on April 18, at GFSC, the second held on June 26 at

Columbia University, NY. I also submitted a coronal science discussion that was included in the

interim report of this group.

I agreed to participate in two other mission studies: Chronos, a UV to X-ray broad-band

monitoring concept led by gon Polidan (GSFC), and LOBSTER, an X-ray all-sky monitoring

concept led by W. Priedhorsky (NRL).

I reduced the ASCA spectral data that were obtained in an observation of Alpha Centauri that

was made in March 1996, working in collaboration with a large group of Co-Investigators. I also

assisted Nancy Brickhouse and Jeremy Drake (both of SAO) to reduce ASCA data that they had

obtained of Capella and Lambda And, respectively, in my capacity of Co-investigator on their

projects.

(ii) Programmatic

I continued to monitor the WWW, anonymous ftp and Gopher services provided by the

HEASARC to the scientific community. We are presently transferring data via ftp, http, and

Gopher utilities at a rate of about 20 Gigabytes per month, while our data archive has reached a

size of about 400 Gigabytes. I also continued to monitor the HEASARC's e-mail hotline

request@athena. In the period covered by this report, I accumulated 680 messages in my "request'

mail folder, about equally divided between messages to request and our replies. I either answered

9

these queries/comments myself, ensured that they were answered by the best-qualified _IIEASARC

member, or forwarded them to a more appropriate hotline or expert.

Our database generation procedures were changed due to the need to ensure that new

databases be brought up near-simultaneously in both our old BROWSE and new W3BROWSE

systems, and also due to the retasking of Pat Tyler. Margo Duesterhaus (HSTX) is now in charge

of co-ordinating the HSTX staff members working in this area. The following 14 databases and

catalogs were either Created or revised in the period covered by this report and installed in both

systems:

....__...... .... .__..--a ......... .I... ......... .....__..._.__...._.__....._...___.w..----a.------.w....m........ .... .mm

Name Description Observatory Updated

ASCAPUBLIC Archival Data ASCA 96.285

ASCALOG Observations Log ASCA 96.212

BD Bonnet Durchmusterung CATALOG 96.151

SMCSTARS Probable Members of SMC CATALOG 96.240

A2SPECTRA HEAO 1 A2 Spectra HEAO 1 96.255

EUV EUVE Master Catalog MASTER CATALOG 96.271

ROSS'IT, Short-term Timeline ROSAT 96.213

ROSMASTER Master Log ROSAT 96.206

RASSBSC All-Sky Survey Bright Sources ROSAT 96.173

ROSPUBLIC Archival Data ROSAT 96.261

ROSATLOG Observation Log ROSAT 96.290

ROSAO Proposals ROSAT 96.227

ROSDISTRIB Distributed Data ROSAT 96.277

SAXAO Approved Pointings SAX 96.220

The TOPBASE atomic physics database has now been installed on a dedicated machine

'tophase'. I have delayed making this a public service on legacy until we receive permission to

copy the WWW pages for this service that are presently available at the European Stellar Data

Center (CDS) in Strasbourg, France. We are awaiting notification of this from Dr. Carlos

Mendoza, the principal maintainer of the TOPBASE datbase.

NON-LOCAL TRAVEL

1. To HEAD Meeting in San Diego, CA from April 29 to May 3 (see above).

2. To AAS Meeting in Madison, WI from June 9 to 13 (see above).

3. To HTXS Team Meeting in New York, NY on June 26.

4. To HTXS Workshop in Boston, MA from September 30 to October 1.

WORK PLANNED FOR NEXT SIX MONTHS

I will continue my research into the coronae of stars using hard X-ray, soI_ X-ray, extreme-

ultraviolet, and radio observations as probes of their physical environments.

10

I will continueoverseeing the anonymous tip account on HEASARC's LEGACY computer, as

well as the HEASARC's ADS node, and the request_legacy user hotline. I will continue

monitoring our creation of BROWSE and W3BKOWSE databases and catalogs.

I will complete the installation of the TOPBASE database of atomic database on our computers

and its provision to the external user community via a captive account and/or a WWW interface.

11

Semi-annualTechnicalReport for the Period from April 1996 to September 1996

Ken Ebisawa, code 660.2, ASCA GOF

////////////

PROJECT WORK

# Helped planning ASCA observations of US guest observers.

# Answered questions from US ASCA guest observers regarding ASCA data analysis and

calibration.

# With other members of the ASCA GOF, developed the ASCA GOF home page, which is

publicly accessible through WWW.

# Made two new itools for ASCA GIS data analysis, ghkcurve and ldeadtime, in cooperation with

itools programmers.

# Worked on the ASCA XRT calibration with Dr. Keith Gendreau.

# Prepared for a presentation material to the Senior Review held in August for the ASCA mession

program to be evaluated.

# Participated in the _I-Iigh Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy' meeting on Sep 30 to Oct 1 in

Boston, and gave an oral presentation with the title 'Study of X-ray Binaries with HTXS'.

SCIENTFIC RESEARCH

# Analyzed ROSAT HRI Crab data taken on March 1995.

# Participated in the "X-rays and gamma-rays from accreting black holes', meeting at Koninki,

Poland, 10-14 June 1996.

# Submitted an XTE AO2 proposal entitled SPECTRAL VARIATIONS OF BLACK HOLE

CANDIDATES SLICED WITH HARD-XRAY INTENSITIES, and the proposal was

accepted.

# Submitted two ASCA AO5 proposals entitled FURTHER SPECTRAL STUDY OF SUPER-

SOFT SOURCES and TWO X-RAY PULSARS WITH CONTROVERSIAL ORIGINS

# The paper 'ASCA Observations of the Iron Line Structure in Cyg X-I' was published

(ApJ, 467, 419-434, 1996).

# The paper 'X-ray Spectroscopy of Cen X-3 with ASCA over an Ecfipse' was published

(PASJ, 48, 425-440, 1996).

12

# Working with Y. Ueda et al. on the ASCA GRO1655-40 data taken in 1994. We are writing up

a paper to submit.

# Working with N. Zhang et al. on the ASCA GRO1655-40 data taken in 1995. The paper was

submitted to ApJ.

# Submitted a conference proceeding for the Super-soil Source workshop at MPE, Garchign,

Germany for Feb 28 Mar 1, 1996, with the title 'ASCA Observation of the Super-soil SourceRX.I 0925.7-4758'.

# Submitted a conference proceeding for the 'X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Cosmic Hot

Plasmas' meeting at Tokyo for March 11-14, 1996, with the title 'ASCA Observations of Binary

X-ray Sources'.

# Worked on the ASCA Cyg X-1 high state data observed in May 1996. We are going to submit

the paper to Nature.

# Started working on XTE Galacticdiffuse emission data taken as an AO1 Guest Observer

program.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIII

WORK PLAN IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS

# Submit the ASCA RXJ0925.7-475 paper.

# Submit a paper on the ASCA GRS1915+15 and GRO1655-40 observations.

# Continue to work on the XTE Galactic diffuse emission data.

# Learn about Astro-E ground calibration system, and start designing the Astro-E standard data

analysis system.

13

TECHNICAL REPORT FOR APR 1 TO SEP 30, 1996

Eric Gotthetf (USRA Research Scientist)

Task# 666-024

Code 660.2, ASCA Guest Observer Facility

Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics

NASA/GSFC

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS

Gotthelf, E. V., Hamilton, T. T., Helfand, D. J. 1995, "The EINSTEIN Observatory Detection of Faint

X-ray Flashes," Ap J, 466, 779.

Hamilton, T.T., Gotthelf, E. V., Helfand, D. J. 1995, "The Absents of X-ray flashes from Nearby

Galaxies and the Gamma-ray Burst Distance Scale," Ap J, 466, 795.

Hwang, U. & Gotthelf, E. V., "X-ray Emission Line Imaging Spectroscopy :._ Tycho's Supernova Rem-

nant," 1996 ApJ, in press.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

"Measuring the ASCA X-ray Pointing Accuracy" Gotthelf, E. V., Ishibashi, K. and the ASCA team,

1996, in "X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of Cosmic Hot Plasmas", in press.

"The ASCA SIS Source Catalog" Gotthelf, E. V., White, N. E., 1996, in "X-Ray Imaging and Spec-

troscopy of Cosmic Hot Plasmas", in press.

"X-ray Spectroscopy of the point source coincident with the SN remnant RCWl03," Gotthelf, E. V.,

Hwang, U., and Petre, R., 1996, in "High Energy Astrophysics Division Conference", BAAS.

"Broadband X-ray Spectral Modeling of the Tycho Supernova Remnant," Hwang, U., Hughes, J. P. and

Gotthelf, E. V., 1996, in "High Energy Astrophysics Division Conference", BAAS.

RESEARCH

• Searching through ROSAT data for confirmation of Einstein iPC X-ray flashes (Collaboration with Dr. D.

Helfand, Columbia University and Dr. T. Hamilton, California Institute of Technology).

• Finishing up a paper on the Supernova remnant RCW 103, in collaboration with Drs. R. Petre and U.

Hwang, and J. Keohane of the Univ. of Minnosota.

• Analysing ASCA observations of the recently discovered pulsar J1105-6107 in collaborating with Dr. V.

Kaspi of Cal Tech.

• Participating in an international collaboration on super soft X-ray sources.

PROJECT WORK

• Managed the ASCA archive.

• Wrote software to check and maintain the ASCA archive.

• Wrote article for ASCANEWS: "'The ASCA Source Positions Uncertainties".

• Maintained and updated ASCA calibration software.

• Performed various ASCA GOF duties.

J •

14

• Wrote sections of the NASA Reasearch Anouncement for the ASCA project.

• Participated in the ASCA review as a techinical Expert.

WORK PLANNED FOR NEXT QUARTER

• Continue current projects.

• Continue calibration software development.

• Make ASCA point source catalogue.

HONORS OR AWARDS RECEIVED

NASA Group Achievement Award as part of the ASCA Mission Operation team, May 9, 1996

15

Technical Report 1996 April 1 - 1996 September 30

Koji Mukai (Task number: 93-03-00)

I.ASCA Matters:

We have continued our routine ASCA GOF activities (answering e-mail questions, assisting

COs with their observation planning); we have not had many GOs visiting the GOF over the last 6

months. Non-routine ASCA activities during the period are:

(1) Patch release of ASCA-related FTOOLS (v3.5.1 and v3.5.2), and preparation and testing for

the subsequent full release (v3.6).

(2) Release of AO-5 NRA, and user support up to the proposal deadline (Aug 6).

(3) Preparation for the AO-5 proposal review.

In particular, I have been delegated the task of organizing the proposal review (reviewer

selection, panel assignment etc.) under the supervision of Dr. Rob Petre. Dr. Petre retains the

responsibility but many of the day-to-day tasks were carried out by me.

2. Future missions:

(1) Preparation of software for the ASTRO-E mission: we are currently in software and data

format definition phase, although some coding is being done in Japan in preparation for the

_ground tests. My ASTRO-E activities included a 1-day meeting at MIT with the Japanese XIS

team members (who were visiting MIT for hardware related reasons mostly).

(2) I continue my low-level involvement in the development and community outreach for the

HTXS mission concept (merging of two concepts, including GSFC-Ied NGXO). As part of this, I

participated in a community dialog during the Madison AAS meeting, and presented my reasons,

as a cataclysmic variable researcher, for wanting an HTXS-like mission.

3. Research activities:

I attended two conference during this period: the HEAD (high energy astrophysics division of

the AAS) meeting in San Diego in late Apr/early May; and the summer AAS meeting in Madison

in early June. At the former, I presented an alternative interpretation of the periodicities in the

unusual magnetic CV, RXJ1940-20, using archival ROSAT data. At the latter, I presented some

preliminary analysis of the ASCA observations of the intermediate polar BG ClVfi, obtained less

than 2 month previously.

I have submitted a paper on the ASCA observation of the eclipsing dwarf nova, I-IT Cas, to ApJ

in late May; the paper has been accepted in August.

4. Public outreach and education:

I have joined OXPOG, the public outreach and education group at LHEA. I have contributed

texts to the HEASARC learning center web site, and have answered questions fi'om the public on

a rota basis.

16

5.Projection of future activities:

During the early part of the next 6-month period, the ASCA AO-5 proposal review and its

aRermath (US-Japanese merging meeting in particular) will take up a large fraction of my time. I

hope to be able to find time to work on more data analysis and submit one or two journal papers.

17

SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT (for the six months ending 30 September 1996)

Employee name: Dr Charles Day Activity: 5030-04A-39

PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITIES:

1. Completed the XTE Getting Started Guide and continued working on The ABC of XTE. Both are

currently available on the web, at, respectively:

heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/abc/front_page.html

heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/start_guide.html

2. Continued maintaining and adding to the RXTE GOF web area which now contains 36 Mbytes of

information in 200 files. The home page, at:

heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xte_ 1st.html,

was visited a total of 6,019 times during June and July this year (for comparison, the ASCA and

ROSAT home pages were visited 3,014 and 1,421 times in the same pe-riod, respectively).

3. Like my GOF colleagues, I have been very active helping our GO community. I have spent a total of

91 hours sitting beside and helping the following visiting GOs:

Dr David Smith (University of Maryland)

Dr IosifLapidus (Cambridge University)

Dr Julian Osborne (University of Leicester)

Dr Michael Corcoran (GSFC) and Mr Kazunori Ishihashi (University of Minnesota)

•Dr Glenn Allen (GSFC)

4. Provided technical support to the RXTE AO-2 review August 26-28.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

In the past year I have worked on only one research project: the analysis of RXTE spectral data from

the X-ray burster X 1728-34. Pre "laninary findings, pre-sented at the Summer AAS meeting in Madison,

WI, hold out the exciting possi-bility of constraining the mass-radius relationship of the neutron star

more tightly than ever before. My collaborator Frank Haberl and I have analyzed one burst so far and

are in the middle of working through several more.

PAPER PRESENTED AT SCIENTIFIC MEETING:

June 1996, AAS Meeting in Madison, WI: "RXTE Observations of Spectra Variability in Bursts from

4U 1728-34," C. S. R. Day, T. E. Strohmayer, W. W. Zhang, A. P. Smal¢, CLISRA & LHEA), J. H.

Swank (LHEA), L. G. Titarchuk (George Mason U. & LHEA), U. Lee (Tohoku U.)

15

AWARDS:

May 9th, 1996:GoddardSpaceFlight CenterGroupAchievementAward asa memberof the ASCAMissionOperationsTeam.

May 9th, 1996:GoddardSpaceFlight CenterGroupAchievementAward asa memberof the XTEScienceOperationsCenter.

COMMUNITY OUTREACHACTIVITIES:

As a memberof the OGIP/X-rayPublic OutreachGroup (OXPOG), I have contributedtext to theHEASARCLearningCenter.

EXTRA-GODDARDCOLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES:

With Drs.FrankHaberl(Max-Planck-Institutfuel"extraterrestrisehePhysik)andLev Titarchuk(GSFC& GeorgeMasonUniversity),I havebeenworkingonanalyzingburstsfrom X1728-34.

With Dr StevePravdo,I havebeenworkingonanalyzingASCA datafrom GX 301-2.

PAPERS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

Choil C. S., Dotani, T., Day, C. S. R., Nagase, F., 1996. "Pulse Phase-Dependent Spectroscopic Study

of Vela X- 1," Astrophys. J., in press.

Strohmayer, T.E., Zhang, W., Swank, J.H., Smale, A., Titarchuk, L., Day, C. & Lee, U. "Millisecond

X-ray Variability from an Accreting Neutron Star System,"Astrophysieal Journal Letters, in press.

19

USRA REPORT 4/1/96 - 9/30/96Dr A.B.Giles

Activity: 93-05-00

During the above period Dr Giles continued as the SoftwareManager for the PCA experiment software development. This periodcan be characterised by two main themes:

I) The continuing in orbit support for RXTE

2) The analysis of scientific data from RXTE and its

presentation at conferences and/or in publications

Meetings:-

Dr Giles attended the following list of meetings at GSFC inconnection with the PCA experiment:

PCA rep. at regular SOF meetingsPCA rep. at SOF CCB meetingsPCA full team group meetingRXTE Users Group Meeting at GSFCRXTE Users Group Meeting at GSFC

Conferences:-

AAS HEAD Meeting at San DiegoCOSPAR at Birmingham, UKADASS Conference at Charlottsville

Travel:-

To the 3 conferences listed above.Leicester University (UK) on 19 July.

Activities:-

Occasional

Every 2nd ThursdayEvery Tuesday2-3-April10-11 Sept

30 April - 3 May15 - 18 July22 - 25 Sept

Also a short visit to

There were no activities outside the overwhelming constraintsimposed by RXTE. As Software Manager Dr Giles continued tocoordinate the work of the following programmers:

Hwa-ja RheeVikram Savkoor

Hughes STXHughes STX

PCA Science Monitoring

PCA Commanding, Health & Safety

Vikram Savkoor left the team in April and Hwa-ja Rhee in

September. Some programming support is now available on a "pool"basis from the regular SOF programmer team. Dr Giles continues to

interact with the SOF on behalf of the PCA team for all hisprevious functions.

A main activity during the period was a substantial change to thecommanding strategy for the PCA HV operations. This involved much

liaison with the SOF and MOC. All these changes represented aconsiderable amount of time and effort.

1) Many initial changes and experimentswere needed tocharacterise the PCA HV breakdown problems in PCU's 4 & 5.

2) New DAP Macros and STOL were developed for a new HVoperational strategy (HV comol_.tely OFF through the SAA)

20

3) New RTS's for the onboard EDS/TSM setup to automatically turnoff a failing detector as soon as an anomaly occurred.

4) A further set of refinements to avoid using HV relay on/offcommands

XTE Observations:-

The following RXTE A01 observations were made:24 June - 25 July PSR1259 (CoI Giles)18-19 July GXI+4 (PI Giles)17 April GR81915-105 (PI Giles)12 May GROJ1655-40 (PI Giles)

The RXTE A02 proposal period closed on 27 August and in thesubsequent selection.process Dr Giles was awarded time for thefollowing observations:

a) Very High Time Resolution Studies of Cyg x-1 in the High Stateat Maximum Telemetry Rate (PI Giles)

b) Generic Observation of all Bright Transient TOO's with veryHigh Resolution and High Telemetry Rate (PI Giles)

c) The Atoll Bursters 4U1702-429 and 4U1735-44 (CoI Giles,PI Swank)

d) Continued Monitoring of the emission from GROJ1744-28(CoI Giles, PI Stark)

e) Post Glitch X-ray monitoring of the Vela Pulsar (CoI Giles,PI Strohmayer)

f) A search for the Pulsar in SN1987A (CoI Giles, PI Marshall)h) Temporal ans Spectral Evolution Studies of KHz X-ray

variability in 4U1728-34 (CoI Giles, PI Strohmayer)

Documents:-

Many minor revisions to all the PCA documents were made.

Publication Activities:-

Refereed Publications:

An Efficient Algorithm for the Detection of Infrequent RapidBursts in Time Series Data. Giles A.B, 1997, ApJ, 474, in press

The Main Characteristics of GROJ1744-28 observed by theProportional Counter Array Experiment on the ROSSI X-ray Timing

Explorer, Giles A.B, Swank J.H, Jahoda K, Zhang W, Strohmayer T,Stark M.J, and Morgan E.H, 1996, ApJ, 469, L25

GROJ1744-28 - Source down to ~10% of Initial Intensity and stillDeclining, Giles A,B, 1996, IAU Circular 6385

GROJ1744-28 - RXTE/PCA Observations of the Source Decline, GilesA.B, and Strohmayer T, 1995, IAU Circular 6338

21

PCA Observations of Cyg X-1 from RXTE using Fast Timing and High

Telemetry Rates, Giles A.B, Jahoda K, and $trohmayer T, 1997,

COSPAR proceedings, Advances In Space Research, submitted

Real Time Science Displays for the PCA Experiment on the ROSSI X-

ray Timing Explorer, Giles A.B, 1997, COSPAR Proceedings,Advances In Space Research, submitted

Other Publications:

The ROSSI X-ray Timing Explorer - Taking the Pulse of the

universe. Giles A.B. and Nally J. 1996, Sky & Space, Australia,submitted.

In Orbit Performance and calibration of the ROSSI X-ray TimingExplorer (RXTE) Proportional Counter Array (PCA), Jahoda K, Swank

J.H, Giles A.B, Stark M.J, Strohmayer T, Zhang W, and Morgan E.H,

1996, BPIE Conference Proceedings, July, Denver, Colorado, 2808,in press.

South Atlantic Anomaly Entry and Exit as measured by the X-ray

Timing Explorer, Smith E, Stark M.J, Giles A.B, Antunes A, and

Gawne B, 1996, NASA GSFC Flight Mechanics/Estimation TheorySymposium, NASA Conference Publication 3333, p 249

Conference Posters:

Real Time Science Displays for the PCA Experiment on the ROSSI X-ray Timing Explorer, Giles A.B, 1996, HEAD AAS Meeting, SanDiego, California, April 30 - May 3


ray Timing Explorer, Giles A.B, 1996, COSPAR Meeting, Birmingham,UK, July 14-21

PCA Observations of Cyg X-1 from RXTE using the Fast Timing and

High Telemetry Rates, Giles A.B, Jahoda K, and Strohmayer T,

1996, COSPAR Meeting Birmingham, UK July 14-21.


ray Timing Explorer, Giles A.B, 1996, ADASS Meeting,Charlotsville, Virginia, Sept 22-25

Next 1/2 year:-

I will' be returning to Australia at the end of the year so will

only be at GSFC for half this period. I will be attempting to

complete as much data analysis as I can while avoidingcommitments that extend into 1997. I hope to continue some

association with the RXTE project from Australia as an honorary

Research associate at the University of Tasmania. The amount oftime and effort available for this effort remains unknown.

22

This report summarizes the activities of Ted Strohmayer over the period

April 1, 1996 to September 30, 1996.

Calibration activities:

Refinements to the calibration of the P(_A detectors on RXTE are continuing. In studying the

response of the PCA collimators our initial calibration gave an energy independent description of

the collimator efficiency. In order to test the accuracy of this model several other aspects of the

calibration need to be well understood. For example, uncertainty in the background as well as the

detector deadtime effect our ability to test the collimator model against detailed observations of

the crab nebula. Recent successes of the background and deadtime models now enable the

collimator model to be tested to about the 1 percent level. This work began in the above period

and is continuing.

Initially I have examined the energy dependence of the scan profiles produced by scanning thedetectors across the crab nebula. Initial results indicate that any energy dependent effects are less

than about 5%, but there is some evidence that the collimators allow more low energy photons

through to the detector than the highest energy photons. This effect is understood in that low

energy X-rays are more likely to undergo small incidence angle reflections than high energy X-

rays_ therefore slightly more Low energy X-rays get reflected into the detector. Analysis to date

indicates that this effect is no bigger than about 5% between the lowest and highest energy X-rays

which the detectors are sensitve to and will be calibrated in the coming months. Additionally, the

robustness of the current collimator model is being examined by first calculating background

subtracted and deadtime corrected scan profiles using the new background and deadtime models.

These efforts will continue in the next few months as well.

I have also contributed to the effort to characterize the absoluted timing accuracy of XTE data.

This work included studies of the accuracy with which the period of the crab pulsar can be

deduced by epoch folding the data.

Research activities:

Analysis of RXTE observations conducted since February, 1996 has been ongoing for the entire

period which concerns this report. A number of exciting results have been reported in the

literature and at several meetings. The following are a few highlights.

1) My PI proposal observations of the X-ray binary and burst source 4U 1728-34 revealed new

millisecond X-ray variability phenomena. These results have been published (Apl/, 1996, 469,

L9 and IAU Circulars 6320, 6387) and reported on at the 1996 High Energy Astrophysics

Division (HEAD) meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), 4/30/96 - 5/4/96, and

the 31st Scientific Assembly of COSPAR, July 14 - 21, 1996 in Bh-mingham, England.

2) My observations of the pulsar 4U 1907+09 are being analysed with colleagues Jean in 't Zand

and Altan Baykal. We have detected unusual cessations in the pulsar emission from the object

which have not been characterized previously. The results will appear in a forthcoming

Astrophysical JournalLetters.

23

3) Dr. Umin Lee of Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan visited from Sept 3 through 27th. We

conducted analysis of RXTE data from the bursting pulsar GRO J1744-28 as well as several X-

ray bursts from the Galactic center region. We recently published an IAUC circular (6484)

describing a 589 Hz oscillation from a burster in the Galactic center region which resulted from

the work conducted during Dr. Lee's visit. A paper describing these results is in preparation.

4) I have been involved in a number of results concerning the "bursting pulsar" GRO J1744-28

which have been reported. These include several IAU circulars (6309, 6338, 6414) and two

papers describing the results of PCA observations of this source (ApJ, 1996, 469, L68, L76)

5) I submitted two proposals for cylce 2 (AO2) observations with RXTE, both proposals were

accepted. One concerns followup observations of the kilohertz QPO source 4U1728-34, and the

other a post-glitch monitoring campaign on the VELA pulsar. I am a co-investigator on a

number of other accepted AO2 RXTE proposals.

24

Dr. Eric1LChristianNASA/GSFCMail Code661

November11, 1996

Semi-Annual Technical Report

April 1996 - October 1996

ACE (Advanced Composition Experiment): ACE is an Explorer that is planned for launch in 1997 to

study the solar wind, and heliospheric and low energy galactic cosmic rays. I am assistant to the Project

Scientist (Jon Ormes). This requires spending a considerable amount of time in meetings and facilitating

communication between the project management here at Goddard, the spacecraft contractor

(JHU/APL), and the experiment teams. As we approach the start of spacecraft integration (January

1997) I_ve been spending more time on ACE (approximately 65%), and this will continue. I am a

member of the ACE Mission Operations Working Group, the Spacecraft Operations Working Group,

and the Initial Operations Working Group. I attend the weekly Code 410 ACE Staff meeting, the bi-

weekly spacecraft status meetings, and science team meetings as scheduled. I am writing a periodic"What's New on ACE" newsletter for the science team and am the author and curator for about 40

pages on the World Wide Web for the ACE spacecraft (http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/ace/ace.htmi). I alsoam on the science team for two of the ACE instruments (the Cosmic Ray Isotope

Spectrometer and the Solar Isotope Spectrometer) and have been helping with the integration and

environmental testing for these instruments. During this time period, I worked on the environmental

testing for both CRIS and SIS and am assisting the APL spacecraft team with the integration and test of

all the instruments.

IMAX (Isotope Matter-Antimatter eXperiment): IMAX is a balloon experiment which we are working

on with Caltech, U. of Siegen, and NMSU to measure the fluxes of anti-protons, and hydrogen and

helium isotopes over a wide energy range. Our first paper "Measurement of 0.25 - 3.2 GeV

Antiprotons in the Cosmic Radiation" by Mitchell et al. has been published in Physical Review Letters

Vol. 76, page 3057. We are working on our next papers on the helium isotope ratios and the galactic

cosmic ray hydrogen and helium energy spectra.

ISOMAX (ISOtope MAgnet eXperiment): This is another magnetic spectrometer balloon experiment

in collaboration with Caltech and U. of Siegen. It is specifically designed to look at the isotopic

composition of beryllium, because 10Be is a very important clock that can measure the lifetime of all

cosmic rays. I am responsible for the onboard command and data handling (C&DH) system and the

computer ground-support equipment (GSE). The hardware is working, and functional C&DH and GSE

software systems are up and running, but both systems are in the process of being expanded.

TIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder): TIGER is a balloon borne experiment designed to

look at ultra-heavy galactic cosmic rays. It is a collaboration with Washington U. (St. Louis) and U. of

Minnesota. During this time period we tried again to fly TIGER, but had another balloon failure (two in

a row). We are making some improvements and working towards flying it again this summer. I am

Goddard instrument manager for TIGER (meaning I am taking the lead for the Goddard part of

the instrument). We are also proposing a combination of our instrument with two high energy

instruments for a future space station experiment.

25

ALICE (A Large Isotopic Composition Experiment): The final

Astronomy and Astrophysics!! But it's still not quite published.ALICE except for getting the final citation.

ALICE paper is now accepted inThis should be the last we hear of

Voyager Cosmic Ray System: I continue to work with Drs. Ed Stone and Alan Cummings of Caltech

on a paper for the Astrophysical Journal. I gave a solicited talk at COSPAR in England this summer on

my work on anomalous cosmic ray hydrogen.

I also presented a paper (Cooper, Christian, and Johnson) at COSPAR on the darkening of comets in

the Kuiper belts by anomalous and galactic cosmic rays. I'll be continuing to work on this topic with my

two co-authors.

On top of all this, I continue to be system manager for two UNIX computers.

26

TO:

FR:

RE:

David Holdridge,/610.3, USRA

Scott Barthelmy/661

May 1996 through Oct. 1996 Report

01Nov. 1996

GRIS project activities:

After the Fall 95 campaign, I did the post-flight generation of the histograms. These are the

"data cleaned", gain-corrected, final histograms that are used by all members of the group for whatever

analyses (about 3 weeks of effort). Even ai_er a lengthy investigation into a digital electronics problem

that garbled some of the events and their elimination, the mystery 511 keV emission from the

gal_latitude=240 region of the galactic plane still remains. The preliminary stage of my analysis for the

cosmic diffuse background spectrum measurement was presented at the "Second INTEGRAL

Workshop" in St. Malo, France in September. At this stage only an upper limit, which is about 2-5

times the theoretical prediction, was presented. There is little hope that further, more involved analysis

will be able to push this upper limit down by more than a. factor of two. In addition to the analysis of

the flight data, I carried out laboratory calibration runs (45 days of accumulation) to make a detailed

measurement of the off-diagonal energy response. This also involved the oversight of the re,assembly

and check-out of the instrument after returning from the field. GRIS is being lefl in a flight-ready

configuration in case there is a near-by Type I Supernova.

PORTIA project activities:

After the Fall 95 campaign where the PORTIA instrument was flown on two of the three flights

in that campaign, I did the post-flight generation of the histograms (about 1 week of effort). These are

the "data cleaned", final histograms that are used by all members of the group for whatever analyses.

BACODINE project activities:

The BACODINE project continues grow. The Bradford University automated telescope

switched to automated operations and the Effelsberg (radio), SAX (gamma-ray s/c), CANGAROO

(TeV), and D.Frail (radio follow-up on the SGR) were added to the list of sites.

I was successful with my GRO Cycle 6 Guest Investigator proposal.

I attended the GROCSE team meeting at LLNL in October. Because of GROCSE's superiority

over the other optical instruments in the BACODINE network, I have always given special attention to

this project and operate at a much higher level of collaboration. I discussed the BACODINE status and

future. We discussed the LOTIS instrument (the second generation to GROCSE) and made a

pre "hminary outline for the Ap.J. final paper on the GROCSE results. This paper should be submitted in

a Dec. or Jan 97.

I created a web page for the BACODINE project. Its contents is structured mostly for use by

the various BACODINE sites, but there is also some basic GRB and astrophysics educational material

in there for the general public.

BACODINE continues to occupy about 50% of my time.

27

InFOCuSprojectactivities:We were successful in our new-start SR&T proposal for the InFOCuS balloon project (J.Tueller

is PI). I did an initial total-system design of the instrument. A micro-processor architecture and an

operating system were chosen and procurements issued. I supervised the mech.eng, for the gondola

truss design and procurements for a test of the carbon-fiber truss design were issued. ,-

POLAR project activities:

I joined the GRB polarimeter team (T.Cline is PI & it is an instrument to measure the

polarization component of GRBs). I supervised a summer student (Ben Mazin from Yale as part ofthe

NASA Academy program). We modified the well-known GEANT program to handle the polarization

dependence of compton scattering of gamma-ray photons and simulated the response for four different

instrument design. A pre'luninary final design was chosen and I issued procurements for 30K$ of

scintillator to make an initial test instrument.

GTOTE project activities:

This project has been in a period of minimal activity. It should become operational in the next

couple months. Routine operations are expected some time this winter. A second system (GTOTE2) is

being built and will be installed next Spring at the MILAGRO site in New Mexico.

GRB Follow-up Proposals:The KPNO WIYN telescope (I am Co-I) GRB follow-up proposal was accepted. We await the

launch of the HETE spacecraR to provide the small error boxes that are needed to match the WIYN

FOV.

Other Proposals:

While my XTE-as-GRB-detector piggy-back program has languished because of the difficulty of

autonomously locating "transients" in the detector rates (because XTE is usually observing sources with

lots of transient behavior), I was pleasantly _e-motivated to continue this effort because XTE recorded

the GRB on 96/09/24. This was a high flue ::e GRB and was recorded by XTE at the >50 sigma level.

This now proves my concept that XTE can De turned into a nearly isotropic GRB detector instrument.

Our group is currently redesigning BASIS for the SMEX program. We will submit it Jan 97. I

am responsible for the stellar aspect camera (a larcsec absolute system which is well beyond current

star tracker systems) and the mounting design and vibration & thermal testing of the CZT detectors.

28

Semi-Annualtechnical report

David Palmer

March 1996-October 1996

During the past 6 months, I have been primarily involved in development of the BASIS instrument, and in

analysis of the data from TGRS and BATSE.

BASIS

BASIS is a new instrument concept which we will be proposing as a SMEX this W'mter. It uses room-

temperature Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) strip detectors with 100 micron spatial resolution and good energy

resolution, combined with a coded aperture mask, to locate GRBs to within a few arc-seconds, allowing deep

and rapid follow-up observations. Most GRB specialists believe that finding a counterpart for a GRB via a deep

and/or rapid follow-up observation is the technique most likely to solve the GRB mystery.

My work has been concentrated in two areas: developing the mask and developing the detectors.

As currently planned, the mask will consist of a 100 micron feature size pattern of 100 micron thick gold on a

beryllium substrate. (Gold blocks the X-rays and gamma-rays, beryllium lets it through, so an astrophysical

source casts a shadow of the gold pattern on the detector.)

The best way to make this pattern is X-ray lithography followed by gold plating. (Optical and UV lithography

does not work for layers of resist more than a few tens of microns thick, due to internal scattering.) I am

working with people at the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron at Argonne to develop the processes required

to build the mask.

My role in detector development has been to develop the analysis tools for understanding the behavior of the

detectors. I am currently working on a prototype system which will produce images using an array of detectors

and a coded aperture with the same resolution as the proposed instrument.

Some of this work is also applicable to the InFOCuS balloon instrument which our group is producing.

TGRS

TGRS, the Transient Gamma Ray Spectrometer, is a high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer designed with a

primary mission to look for features in gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectra. Discovery of these features would

provide strong evidence of a Galactic origin of GRBs (or, at least, that particular GRB).

In addition to the normal analysis of TGRS data, I am developing software to look for new kinds of transient

gamma-ray phenomena. Most detected GRBs show variability over timescales of a few seconds or less. Slower

variations are indistinguishable from the large variations produced by

changing particle backgrounds encountered by instruments in Low Earth Orbit, where the background varies by

as much as a factor of two during each 90 minute Orbital period. TGRS, on the other hand, spends much of its

time in interplanetary space, outside of Earth's magnetosphere, and is thus well-placed to notice transient sources

that rise slowly over time periods of minutes, hours, or days. In addition, there is a type of transient, seen only

once, which has a pure line spectrum. TGRS's high resolution is useful for observing this type of transient.

I have presented a poster paper at a conference (the San Diego HEAD meeting) with preliminary results of this

analysis, showing that no events similar to an event known as the 'Jacobson Transient' were seen during a

3-month period.

29

I am developing techniques (Principal Component Analysis) to characterize the small variations that remain in the

background to provide greater sensitivity over a larger range of potential source parameters.

BATSE

I continue to search the BATSE data for spectral lines in GRBs as they occur. So far, no lines have been found.

3O

Report on work performed at NASA/GSFC under the USRA/GVSP

Period: 01 April, 1996 through 30 September, 1996

Name: Dr. Joseph A. Esposito

Tasks

a) Writing and upgrading of the Maximum Likelihood Point Source Analysis Software (LAS) to meet new triggeringcriteria. This included "vertical event mode" and "fan (or strip) mode" for which the EGRET trigger field of view is

reduced to diminish the number of events which trigger the spark chambers thus increasing the 'life' of the EGRET

instrument. The software package is up to date with minimal (cosmetic) problems. The likelihood Version 5.50soRware has been delivered to MPE, LSW and Stanford. Version 5.51 is under development and will be released

shortly.

b) Responding to user questions and problems using the soRware, responding to soRware '_ougs" reported by users and, if a

"bug" exists, rewriting the software to repair the error. All reported "bugs" have been repaired whenever required

(most %ug" reports are actually misuse or misunderstanding of the software by a user requiring, in some instances,

exhaustive searches for coding errors which do not exist).

c) Developing, writing and maintaining the Likelihood Analysis Software Users Guide wtdch includes a detailed list of all

current available functions, file descriptions, environment variables used by the Likelihood Analysis SoRware.

Development of the Likelihood Analysis Software Users Guide is on-going work and is also available, in part, on theWorld Wide Web at URL: http:l/Iheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/~jae/iike./. The WWW LAS Users Guide is on-going work.

The package of static HTML files are under development and several dynamic files are being considered. An

alphabetically grouped linked HTML list of I.AS commands through command "LC" is complete (see the LAS WWW

pages).

d) Laboratory work on the development of Gas MicroStructme Detectors (GMSD). This work replaces the SR&T program

development on the AGATE instrument. The laboratory work accounts for 30% of my time at GSFC and includes:

detector and circuitry design and, detector testing and calibration.

e) Analysis of EGRET flight data for use in determing gamma-ray emission f_om supernova remnants and ultraluminous

infi'ared galaxies (CGRO proposal support) and for inflight calibration of the EGRET instrument (see papers in

preparation)

Proposals

Awarded cycle 6 EGRET team proposal (GRO-96-242) "Galactic Supernova Target of Opportunity and Data Rights to

EGRET Gamma-Ray Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants".

Awarded SR&T proposal as Co-investigator (NRA 95-OSS-07) "Development of Gas Microstructure Detectors for

Gamma-Ray Telescopes".

Submitted response to ASCA AO (ASCA AO-5) "X-ray Emission from Type II Supernova Remnants (MSH ll-61a and

G312.4-0.4) Positionally Correlated with EGRET Unidentified Sources" with Co-Investigators Glenn E. Allen and J.

Keohane.

Presentations at meetings

AAS Meeting, Madison, June 1996, "EGRET Observations of Cramma-Ray Emission from Supernova Remnants,"

Esposito, J. A., Sreekumar, P., Hunter, S. D. Kanbach, G. 1995, BAAS, 188.28.06Extremes Workshop, NASA/GSFC, September 1996, "Observations of Gamma-Ray Emission from Supernova Remnants,"

Esposito, J. A., Sreegumar, P., Hunter, S. D. Kanbach, G.

31

Publications

"EGRET Observations of Radio Bright Supernova Remnants," Esposito, J. A., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach, G., Sreekumar, P., 1996,

ApJ, 461, 820

"Possible EGRET Gamma-Ray Burst Detection Independent of BATSE Triggering," Jones, B. B., Bertsch, D. L., Dingus, B. L.,

Esposito, J. A, Fichtel, C. E., Fierro, J. M., Hartman" P,. C., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach, G., Kniffen" D. A., Lin" Y. C., Mayer-Hassolwander, H. A., Mattox, J. R., Michelson" P. F., von Montigny, C., Nolan" P. L., Pohl, M., Schneid, E. J., Sreekumar, P.,

Thompson, D. J., Tompkins, W. F., Willis, T. D. 1996, ApJ, 463, 565

"Solar Modulation of Cosmic Electrons," Clem, J. M_, Clements, D. P., Esposito, J. A., Evenson, P., Huber, D., LTIeureux, J.,

Meyer, P., Constantin" C., 1996, ApJ, 464, 507

"EGRET Observations of the North Galactic Pole Region," Sreekumar, P., Bertsch, D. L., Dingus, B. L., Esposito, J. A., Fichtel, C.

E., Fierro, J., Hartman, R. C., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach, G., Kniffen" D. A., Lin" Y. C., Mayer-I-Iasselwander, H. A., Mattox, J.R., Michelson" P. F., von Montigny, C., Mukherjee, R., Nolan" P. L., Schneid, E., Thompson" D. J., Willis, T. D. 1996, ApJ

464, 628

"EGRET Observations of High-Energy Gamma Radiation from PSR B1706-44," Thompson, D. J., Bailes, M., Bertsch, D. L.,

Esposito, J. A., Fichtel, C. E., Harding, A. K., Hartman" R. C., Hunter, S. D., Manchester, R_ H., Mattox, J. R., von Montigny,C., Mukherjee, R., Itarnanam_y, P. V., Sreekumar, P., Fierro, J. M., Lin, Y. C., Michelson" P. F., Nolan" P. L., Kanbach, G.,

Mayer-Hasselwander, H. A., Merck, M., Kniffen" D. A., Schneid, E. J., Kaspi, V. M., Johnston" S., Daugherty, J., Ruderman"

M. 1996, ApJ, 465, 385

"EGRET High-Energy Gamma-Ray Pulsar Studies. HI. A Survey," Nel, H. I., Anoumanian" Z., Bailes, M., Brazier, K. T. S.,

D'Amico, N., Esposito, J. A., Fiehtel, C. E., Fierm, J. M., Hunter, S. D., Johnston" S., Kanbaeh, G., Kaspi, V. M., Kniffen, D.

A., Lin, Y. C., Lyne, A. G., Manchester, R. N., Mattox, J. P,., Mayer-Hasselwander, H. A., Merck, M., Mifhelson, P. F., Nice,D. J., Nolan, P. L., Ramanamurthy, P. V., Taylor, J. H., Thompson, D. J., Westbrook, C. 1996, ApJ, 465, 898

"EGRET Observations of Gamma Rays from Point Sources with Galactic Latitude -30 degrees < b < -10 degrees," Dingns, B. L.,

Bertsch, D. L., Digel, S. W., Esposito, J. A., Fichtel, C. E., Fierro, J. M., Hagtman, R. C., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach, G., Kniffen,

D. A, Lin" Y. C., Mattox, J. R., Maye_-I-Iasselwander, H. A., Michelson, P. F., von Montigny, C., Mukherjee, R., Nolan" P. L.,

Schneid, E., Sreekumar, P., Thompson" D. J., Willis, T. D. 1996, ApJ, 467, 589

"EGRET Observations of the Region to the South of b = -30 degrees in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Compton Gamma Ray

Observatory Viewing Program," Lin" Y. C., Bertsch, D. L., Dingus, B. L., Esposito, J. A., Fichtel, C. E., Fierro, J. M., Hartman"R. C., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach, G., Kniffen" D. A., Mattox, J. R., Mayer-I-Iasselwander, I-L A., Michelson" P. F., von Montigny,

C., Mukherjee, R., Nolan, P. L., Radecke, H. D., Schneid, E. J., Sreekumar, P., Shriver, S. K., Thompson" D. J., Willis, T. D.

1996, ApJS, 105, 331L

Publications in preparation

"In-flight Calibration and Analysis Refinements for the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton

Gamma Ray Observatory" Esposito, J. A., Bertsch, D. L., Dingus, B. L., Fichtel, C. E., Hartman, R. C., Hunter, S. D., Kanbach,G., Kniffen" D. A., Lin" Y. C., Mayer-Hasselwander, I-l. A., L. M. McDonald, Michelson, P. F., yon Montigny, C., Mukherjee,

R., Nolan" P. L., Schneid, E. J., Sreekumar, P., Thompson, D. J., Willis, T. D. in preparation for ApJS

"Observations of'Gamma-Ray Emission from Sulgrnova Remnants during EGRET Cycles 1-4" Esposito, J. A., Hunter, S. D.,

Kanbach, G., Sreekumar, P., in preparation for ApJ

32

TECHNICAL REPORT 3/30/96-10/31/96

Kai-W'mg Chan

We have just started the production phase of the flight-quality ASTRO-E foils (on 28

October). The details of problems leading to the delay and the solution proposed was reported on

the Annual Review in August and thus need not be repeated here. Briefly, there was a problem

with the foil reflectors due to a mismatch of the thermal expansions between the aluminum

substrate and the adhesive used to couple the substrate and the reflecting gold surface. The

solution, accepted by the ASTRO-E Scientific Committee in June, is to reduce the thickness of

the epoxy adhesive by about 40% and strengthen the substrate by using 156 micron aluminum

instead of 127 micron aluminum.

Progress since then includes:

(1) Adjusting for the replication with a thinner layer of epoxy, and testing such foils in the optical

and x-ray, and their thermal response.

(2) To arrange vendor to produce aluminum sheets with required quality, and test the samples.

The first batch of material arrived earlier this month (October).

(3) In addition, we have taken this opportunity to make some changes. We now use "nameplate"

foils instead of mill-finished foils. This reduces the chances of "print-through" of epoxy, which

will be more serious for the present case of a thinner epoxy layer. Such effect is confirmed both in

the'optical test and also in x-ray reflectometric test.

(4) We have streamlined the production process to increase the production rate in order to catch

up with the lost time. The current production rate is set at 18 reflectors a day, rather than the

original 15, with a possibility that it will go to 21 reflectors a day once the production is shown to

be satisfactory. The whole production and delivery will still be on schedule. A change of schedule-

--a delay---was already made in June for the delivery of the first quadrant of the first telescope.

The whole project, as far as the mirrors are concerned, is expected to be on schedule.

(5) We have successfully tested some replication process which further cuts down the thickness of

epoxy by another factor of two. Even though many other details still need to be examined, the

preliminary results, an x-ray reflectometric measurement included, is very encouraging (as of

today). We probably will make a decision within two weeks or so as to whether we will

implement this modification or not.

On the side of instrumentation, we have made the following installations.

(1) We have set up an x-ray reflectometer which significantly speeds up many testing. Such tests

used to be done by sending reflectors to Nagoya University, Japan. The new set up is mainly the

contribution of Dr. Tarawa from Nayoga University, Japan, who visited us for six weeks during

the summer; and Dr. Ogasaka, who is now with the mirror team.

(2) We have also improved the optical testing by utilizing a large vertical monochromatic beam

together with a CCD detector.

(3) We also have installed an ultra-sound bath, with circulating propanol for cleaning the

substrate. The system is on loan from the XTE group.

Besides these new developments in the group, I am also spending more time on the analytical

aspects of the mirrors. In particular, I have developed a set of computer programs which allow us

to study the effect of image degradation due to imperfect telescope or foil geometries (that is,

alignment errors, imprecise reflector positioning, deviation of reflector shapes from perfect cones,

etc.) Analytical image analysis--ray tracing---has mainly been handled by a group at Nagoya

University and partly by Peter Serlemitsos of our group. At Nagoya, the imaging response of the

33

full telescopein x-ray is fully simulated, taking into account the response with detailed x-ray

optics. However, such simulation consider little of the geometric defects which are more relevant

to our process here (heat-forming/shaping of foils, matching of shape of replication glass

mandrels, telescope tuning and alignment, etc.) Such processes can be investigated largely in

geometrical optics, and that is the purpose of the present complementary study. The set of

programs developed so far can handle change of foil thickness and variation in foil positions. They

are still under continued development and I hope with the commencement of the full production

of flight-reflectors, I will have more time to concentrate on the analytical studies.

Publications(alsolistedin the Annual Review):

Jiang, I.G., Chan, K.W. and Ko, C.M. 1996.

"Hydrodynamic Approach to Cosmic Ray Propagation. I. Non-linear Test Particle Picture",

Astron. Astrophys. 307, 903-914.

Ko, C.M., Chan, K.W. and Webb, G.M. 1996.

"Cosmic Ray Modified Shocks with Injection in Hydrodynamic Approach. I. Injection Linear in

Thermal Pressure", Accepted for publication in Journal of Plamsa Physics.

34

This is to report the activities that have happened in the Astro-E mirror lab in the period of March

to September, 1996. To fabricate five Astro-E mirrors and research on science and technologies

are the two main responsibilities of Yang Soong who is working at GSFC with USRA

employment.

1) The mirror fabrication. After a long period of trouble-shooting for the foil mirror thermal

dependence since Feb. 96, we have come to a conclusion and a solution followed up in June 96.

We have resumed the flight hardware production in Sep. 96, and the foil production is going to

last for 2 years from now to fall up 5 telescopes of 7000 pieces of them in various radii.

2) To understand the error budget of the current configuration. We are in the process of clarifying

the sources of the error which makes the image size, although was largely improved after the

Astro-D project, still is about 4 times larger than the theoretical value. We will be trying different

ways to reduce this error in terms of improvement in hardware and software, i.e. computersimulation.

3) The next X-ray spectroscopic imaging project is at the horizon. It is currently named as High

Throughput X-ray spectrocopy (HTXS). It is planned to be operated in mid 2000. We are actively

persuing the future participation.

4) A technique of multilayering of elements on thin foils intended to expand the energy band of

the telescope up to 60 keV is under study in collaboration with the Gamma-ray group at GSFC

and other international institutes. The goal is to make telescopes for balloon flight which aim at a

higher energy observation in the next two years.

These were the main activities happened in the X-ray mirror lab in the last half a year period.

35

October 15, 1996

This is the lastreport of Grog Madejski's activityat USRA, and itincludes theperiod untilOctober 15th, 1996. As of October 16th,Dr. Greg Madejski willbeworking for the University of Maryland.

As usual, Greg's work consisted of a mixture of programmatic and researchactivities.

For the programmatic work, he is working on the Astro-E X-ray Spectrometerinstrument. Specifically,he continued working on the problem of survivabilityofthe blocking filtersduring launch conditions,and was involved in the low-temperature vibrationtestingof these filters.He also took part in the ScienceWorking Group meeting for the Astro-E satellitein March, 1996 at ISAS in Japan.

For the research activities,he continued working on the high energyemission from both the radio-quietSeyfert galaxies,and from blazars.

The following papers ap_ in pres_

* "3C279 Multiwavelength Monitoring: II. Ground-Based Campaign," P. Grandil

C. M. Urry, L. Maraschi, A. E. Wehrle, G. M. Madejski, M. F. Aller,H. D.Aller,C. D. Bailyn, T. J. Balonek, T. H. Bock, I.S. Glass, S. J. Lichfield,I.M. McHardy, J. S. Mulchaey, H. -P.Reuter, E. I.Robson, A. C. Sadun,W. Sherry, H. Steppe, J. A. Stevens, H. Terasranta, M. Tornikoski, andS. Wagner, Astrophysical Journal, 459, 73 '

* "Radiation Drag in RelativisticJets,"M. Sikora,H. Sol,M. C. Begelman, andG. M. Madejski, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,280, 781

"1996 "NGC 4945: The Brightest Soyfert2 at I00 keV," C. Done, G. M. Madejski,and D. A. Smith, Astrophysical Journal (Letters),463, L63.

He submitted the following papers-

* "High Energy Emission in Blazars," G. Madejski, R. Hartman, T. Takahashi,F. Makino, H. Kubo, M. Tashiro, M. Sikora, I.McHardy, A. Wehrle,and W. Collmar, (Proceedings of conference "X-ray Imaging andSpectroscopy of Cosmic Hot Plasmas," Tokyo, Japan) (inpress)

* "Asca Observation of X-ray/TeV Flare from the BL Lac Object Mkn 421,"T. Takahashi, M. Tashiro, G. Madejski, H. Kubo, T. Kamae,J. Kataoka, T. Kii, F. Makino, I_ Makishima, and N. Yamasaki(Astrophysical Journal (Letters)) (in press)

* 'Variability in the Inverse-Compton X-ray Flux from the Jet in Quasar 3C345,"S. Unwin, A. Wehrle, A. Lobanow, J. Zensus, G. Madejski, M. Aller, andH. Aller (Astrophysical Journal) (in press)

* "X-ray Spectra of Broad-Line Radio Galaxies,"P. Wozniak, A. Zdziarski,D. Smith,G. Madejski',and W. Johnson (Monthly Notices of Royal AstronomicalSociety)(submitted)

Greg Madejski's USRA Report -Oct. 15, 1996

36

* "On the Applicabilityof Emission Models of Gamma-ray Blazars,"M. Sikora,G. Madejski, R. Moderski, and J. Poutanen (AstrophysicalJournal) (inpress)

* "An X-ray Absorption Feature in the BL Lac Object H1426+428", R. Sambruna,I.M. George, G. Madejski, C.M. Urry, T.J. Turner, K.A. Weaver,L. Maraschi, and A. Treves (Astrophysical Journal) (submitted)

* "Multiwavelength Monitoring of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304 in May 1994.I. Probing the Inner Jet through Multiwavelength Correlations," C. M. Urry,A. Treves, L. Maraschi, H. Marshall, T. Kii, .G. Madejski, P. Smith, E. Pian,R. Fujimoto, F. Makino, C. Otani, _S. Penton, J. E. Pesce, R. Sambruna,K. Sasaki, J. M. Shull, T. Takahashi, and M. Tashiro (Astrophysical Journal)(submitted)

He delivered two invited

* "High Energy Emission from BL Lacs," invited talk at the conference "X-rayImaging and Spectroscopy of Cosmic Hot Plasmas," Tokyo, March 11-14, 1996.

* "X-ray Spectrum of Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 4945," invited talk at the conference"X-rays and gamma-rays from accreting black holes," Koninki, Poland,June 11 - 14, 1996.

M_or work in progress:

- Supervision ofPh.D. thesiswork of Mr. Charles Hall of Catholic

University: the firstthesispaper, "On propertiesofthe scatteringmedium in Seyfertgalaxies in the contextof the Unified Models"should be submitted by the end ofOctober 1996.

- Co-supervision of Ph.D. thesis work of Mr. Hidetoshi Kubo of TokyoUniversity and ISAS (with Prof. Tadayuki Takahashi). The subjectis '_:-ray Observations of GeV-emitting Blazars."

Service work:

- Dr. Madejski participatedin the CGRO Peer Review, and willparticipatein the HST Peer Review (end ofOctober 1996).

-Dr. Madejski delivereda public outreach lecturesat the National Youth

Science Camp in Bartow, West Virginia,in July 1996.

-Dr. Madejski lecturedat the Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) on"Origin of chemical elements" on October 2, 1996.

Propos accepte

PI forone, and a major Co-I foranother CGRO proposal; PI for two andmajor Co-I forone XTE proposal; PI forone ROSAT proposal.

Greg Madejski's USRA Report -Oct. 15, 1996

37

Final Technical Report, Michael Loewenstein, 4/1/96-9/4/96

"Measurement of the Elemental Abundances in Four Clusters of Galaxies I.

Observations," (R. F. Mushotzky, M. Loewenstein, K.A. Arnaud, T. Tamura, Y.

Fukazawa, K. Matsushita, and I. Hatsukade) and "Measurement of the Elemental

Abundances in Four Rich Clusters of Galaxies II. The Initial Mass Function and Mass

Loss in Elliptical Galaxies, Enrichment and Energetics in the ICM," (M. Loewenstein

and R. F. Mushotzky) appeared in the August 1 issue of the ApJ (466, 686 and 695).

:'The Consistency of Fe Abundances from L and K Emission in Clusters of Galaxies"

by U. Hwang, R. F. Mushotzky, M. Loewenstein, T. H. Markert, Y. Fukazawa, and

H. Matsumoto - has been accepted for publication by the ApJ; final revisions are in

progress.

"The Mass of Abell 1060 and AWM 7 from Spatially Resolved X-ray Spectroscopy:

Variations in Baryon Fraction" by M. Loewenstein and R. F. Mushotzky has been

accepted for publication in ApJ Letters.

"X-ray Properties of Early Type Galaxies as Observed with ASCA" by H.

Matsumoto, H. Awaki, M. Loewenstein, et al. is nearly complete and will shortly

be submitted to Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.

I gaves talks on the cosmological implications of our work on clusters of galaxies

for the Goddard cosmology seminar on April 24, and for the Center for Astrophysical

Sciences weekly seminar at Johns Hopkins University on April 16.

Evidence from ASCA of X-ray counterparts to HST-discovered micro-quasars was

presented at the HEAD meeting in San Diego in May. I also contributed to Nick White's

HTXS presentation at that meeting.

I gave a two hour April 1 seminar on "Investigating Dark Matter in the Universe

with X-ray Observations" for the "Current Perspectives in High Energy Astrophysics"

course offered by the University of Maryland Astronomy Department, and am preparing

a written version for inclusion in an upcoming NASA LHEA Reference Publication.

I gave the invited talk on "Cooling Flows in Elliptical Galaxies" at the international

Cooling Flows in Galaxies and Clusters Conference in Oranim, Israel in July.

38

Semi-Annual Report 4/1/96-9/30/96Patricia Boyd

This report describes project work completed during the above time frame, as well as papers

submitted, talks given and meetings attended.

MOXE-related items:

MOXE project work:

April 1 The MOXE instruments underwent a week of EMI testing at Goddard; MOXE

successfully passed the EMI tests.

April 13 One of our Russian collaborators from 1I(1, Vadim Arefiev, arrived at Goddard for

a 10 week working visit. During his stay we worked on development and testing

of the MOXE Quick Look Analysis (QLA) facility. This is a set of programswritten in C and IDL which read various MOXE data formats and display

instrument housekeeping and scientific data in graphical format. Vadim returned

to IKI on June 28.

April 22-25 The GSFC MOXE team hosted a three day Flight Software meeting, which took

place at the USRA off' site office. Participants from Los A/amos National Lab

attended, as did two IKI scientists. This meeting helped the team to kick off. a

busy summer for the MOXE instrument, and we appreciate the time and

cooperation of the USRA staff.in making the meeting possible, on short notice.

June 24-27 The MOXE Pre-ship review was held at Goddard. I prepared a presentation of

some results of calibration data that I analyzed earlier in the year. The pre-ship

review was very favorable for the MOXE instrument.

Aug 20 and following---I was involved in the preparations for the Flight Acceptance test forMOXE and XRS, the other US instrument to be flown on Spectrum X-Gamma.

The preparations included coordinating the computer needs of the various teams

involved in the test, some set upofthe test facility in Building 20, getting the

computers at the facility hooked up to the Internet, and many other last minutetasks. In addition we finalized a drat_ version of the QLA code to be run during

the test.

Sept 5-27- The MOXE/XRS Flight Acceptance Test took place. Members of the spacecraft

team, the data sharing instrument team, and the two scientific instrument teams

designed and ran numerous scenarios of observation modes to test all of the

pipeline for data, from the moment it is detected by the instruments through to its

display at the QLA facility. We encountered a few surprises along the way about

the flight software, but by the end of the test MOXE was communicating as

expected with the spacecraft. MOXE has thus been accepted for flight on

Spectrum X-gamma.

39

Other science activities:

Papers published: During this period, the following papers were published based on my prior and

continuing work with HSP data:

Michalitsianos, A.G., Dolan, J. F., Kasanas, D., Bruhweiler, F. C., Boyd, P. T., et al, "Lyman-

alpha absorption-line systems in the gravitational lens Q0957+561", ApJ, V474, (to appear Jan

10, 1997)

Dolan, J. F., Boyd, P. T., Nelson, M. J., Percival, J.W, et al., "Hubble Space Telescope

Observations of AGNs in the Ultraviolet: BL Lac and Q2345+007", (to appear in Astrophysics

and Space Science, 1997)

Graham-Smith, F. Dolan, J.F., Boyd, P.T., Biggs, J. D., Lyne, A. G. And Percival, J. W., "The

ultraviolet polarization of the Crab pulsar", Mon. Not. IL Astron. Sot., 282, 1354-1358 (1996).

In preparation:

Dolan, Hill, Boyd, Silvis, Robinson et al., "Reprocessed UV pulses from the companions of X-ray

binary stars", in preparation for ApJ or ApJ letters

Science Community Service:

May 1-3 I traveled to Indianapolis, IN to attend the APS/AAPT meeting. I was inaugurated

as the new Secretary/Treasurer of the Division of Astrophysics, a position I will

hold for the next two years.

Aug 25-28 I served as an XTE proposal reviewer at Tysons Corner Virginia.

Education and Public Outreach

May 23 Arkansas University student Rekha Pradhan arrived at GSFC for a second summer

to carry out research with me. This year we concentrated on the initial value space

of the gravitational three body problem, and Rekha discovered some surprising

structures present when the three stars have unequal masses. Rekha returned to

Arkansas on August 15th.

July 16 The teacher intern program AAStra brought a number of elementary through

high school teachers to Goddard. I participated in a break-out session where anumber of teachers and I had a round table discussion about how I became an

astronomer, my interests in school as a child, and ways to motivate girls in math

and science. Some of our discussions have given us ideas about how to present

the astronomers on the High Energy Astrophysics Learning Center.

Aug 2 I traveled to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where I served on the Phi) thesis

defense committee of Janet Houser. Here thesis was on the numerical simulation

of gravitational waves from rotating collapsing compact objects. Janet was

awarded her Phi).4O

Sept

July 1

Sept. 13

I worked with Gwynn Park High School physics teacher and physicist Heide Doss

on preparing a proposal for the IDEA grant program to help communicate the

method of measuring the mass of a neutron star to high school students.

Proposals Submitted

I was the P. I on a proposal submitted to the XTE program to observed Vela

XR-1 simultaneously in the X-ray and UV/optical. My c,o-investigators are HSP

team members, as the project builds on early HSP results, and a high school

teacher to help communicate the methods used by astronomers to the high school

audience. The proposal was successful, and has been awarded time to becoordinated with HST time and observations at Las Campanas observatory.

I was a co-Investigator on an HST proposal to observe Vela XR-I simultaneously

with XTE and STIS. This is tied with the XTE program described above.

TECHNICAL REPORT

(1 April 1996 - 30 September 1996)

Name:

Activity:

Paul Barrett

5030-20A-39

I. SUMMARY

A. Task Work

I. COSSC Bibliography

Work on the COSSC bibliography has occurred at a much lower priority, since it was discussed in the previous

technical report. All that remains do be done to bring it up-to-date is the years 1991 and 1992. Dora

Sermlemitsos is assisting me with this task.

2. COMPASS (COMPtel Analysis Software System)

Most of my effort during this period was directed at assisting COMPTEL guest investigators analyze their data

at Goddard. And some effort has gone into maintaining COMPASS.

The EGRET DRI data was obtained from the COMPTEL team and integrated into COMPASS.

Work has begun on updating the COMPTEL web pages. The first project being the creation of a COMPTEL

source list, so guest investigators can see if the source that they are interested in has been observed and analyzed.

This should help the GI during the next proposal submission process.

Other proposed COMPASS projects are to create an automated 'pipeline' for archiving the COMPTEL data inFITS format and to move the COMPASS software from the node 'cosmic.gsfc.nasa.gov' to

'compass.gsfc.nasa.gov' and to upgrade the two nodes with a new operating system and an additional processor.

Initiation of this project has been delayed until the system managers at Univ of New Hampshire acquire more

experience about the upgrade.

3. Remote Proposal Submission (RPS)

At the beginning of this report period, much attention was given to helping guest observers submit their CGRO

Cycle 6 proposals. Now that the system is more stable and most of the GO are familiar with the system, less

effort was required to support GO during this cycle.

I continued to attend the bi-weekly RPS meetings during this period and some work was done preparing for

CGRO Cycle 7.

4. Argus (was Multi-mission Interactive Proposal System, MIPS)

As noted in the previous report, most of the effort for this project was spent at meetings to dis0ussion the

design and implementation of a Web version of this software. I prepared and delivered the cycle 5 Timeline to

the database programmers. This meeting has been integrated into the database meetings, so I have stopped

attending after delivering the information requested of me.

42

B. Research

1. Soft X-Ray Survey of CVs Using Archival ROSAT data.

Some effort has been periodically spent on this project coordinating follow-up ground-hase optical observationswith collaborators. Efforts will continue until most of the sources in the Ultra-Soft Source list has been

identified. A paper on some white dwarfs discovered during the survey is in preparation.

As part of this research, I have volunteered my services as a mentor for a senior research project. This project

began in mid-September and will last throughout the school year.

2. ComptordCOMPTEL Data

Some additional progress has been made on analyzing the CompTel data. Work as has been slowed due to pro-

grammatic activities and other scientific research projects.

3. XTE Proposal.

Much work during March and August 1996 was spent scheduling simultaneous ground-based observations of

our 2 XTE sources in the proposal "X-Ray Oscillations in AM Her Binaries". This time was obtained and the

observations have been made. Work on analyzing this data will begin soon. The death of one of the Co-Is has

required some changes in carrying out this project.

4. McDonald Observatory Proposal

I was Co-I on a proposal submitted to the McDonald Observatory in Texas to make simultaneous optical and

XTE observations of the magnetic Cataclysmic Variable EF Eri in 1996 October. This proposal was accepted.

5. Identification of 6 White Dwarfs in the ROSAT archive.

A poster was presented at the High Energy Astrophysics Division Meeting in San Diego about the identification

of 6 new white dwarfs using archival ROSAT data. A paper is in preparation.

6. Electronic Proposal Submission (EPS) software

Some progress was made on a prototype for Electronic Proposal Submission software. This project is designed

to replace the current RPS software with a simpler and more robust design for both programmers and users.

Work on this project has slowed.

7. ISO proposal

I was Co-I on a ISO proposal submitted in mid-September. This is a resubmission of a previous ISO proposal.

8. J1802 paper and NGC 55 paper

A paper about IUE observations of the binary star J1802-1804 was submitted to ApJ. Another paper about

archival KOSAT observations of NGC 55 was also submitted. I was a co-author on both papers.

43

9. CGRO Cycle 6 Proposal

I assisted in the preparation of a CGRO Cycle 6 Proposal. Eric Schlegel is PI and Chris Shrader, Daryl

Macomb, and I are co-Is. This proposal was accepted.

II. FUTURE WORK AND RESEARCH

A. Task Work

1. Compton GKO Publication Database

Continue enhancing the GRO publication database by adding new publications.

2. COMPASS Software Administration

Work will continue on administration, maintenance, and improvements to the COMPASS so/_,vare here at

Goddard. Will work on proposal to upgrade software and hardware of both Sun SPARCstation 20s. Enhancing

the COMPASS web pages and assisting guest investigators.

3. RPS Meetings.

Attendance at RPS meetings will continue in anticipation of the next CGRO proposal cycle.

B. Research

1. Continue working on ROSAT Survey of Cataclysmic Variables.

2. Continue working on COMPTEL data analysis.

3. Continue analysis of XTE data of 2 cataclysmic variables.

4. Continue working on identification ofROSAT Ultra-soi_ Sources.

[II. MEETINGS AND SYMPOSIA ATTENDED

1. Attended the High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting in San Diego, CA during 1996 May 1-4.

2. Attended the Astronomical Data Analysis and Sot_ware Systems (ADASS) VI Meeting in Charlottesville, VA

in 1996 September 23-35. I sponsored a Bird-of-Feather session. A summary of the session will be written up in

the proceedings.

44

Dr. Daryl Macomb

Technical Report

My support work consisted of the following: Continued to act as the EGRET support person

at the CGRO Science Support Center. This has involved supplying Grs with software and data,

keeping them informed oftimeline changes, and working on documentation. I have been working

on a new EGRET CD to be distributed next spring which will encompass all current EGRET

archival data, software, and documentation. Extensive work on HTML/JAVA access to this CD

is a major portion of this effort. In addition, I have continued to take part in efforts to provide

public outreach for gamma-ray astronomy through devoting considerable effort to a "New

Windows" brochure describing the science associated with the SEUS program and through some

beginning efforts at publishing the work of NASA's Gamma-Ray Astronomy Working Group. Ihave also continued to work on other WWW related issues.

In terms of research, I have made progress on three programs involving a general gamma-ray

catalog, an analysis of gamma-ray sources above 1 GeV, and studies of the pulsar PSR 1509-58.

I anticipate papers on all three topics being submitted by early spring. I have also spent some time

looking into options for flying the proposed GLAST experiment on the shuttle as part of the

GAS or Hitchhiker program.

4.5

Bi-Annual Progress Report forChris R. Shrader, USRA/CGRO-SSC

(Activities for April 1, 1996 - November 1, 1996)

CGRO Guest Investigator Program: The Cycle-6 peer review was organized with the

cognizant Project and Program Scientists. The review was held during June 1996. 230 proposalswere reviewed by 5 scientific review panels. A separate process was devised to review budget

requests for accepted proposals independent of the initial scientific peer review. My contributionwas to organize and chair the review, and oversee the database compilation of the results.

Extensive database preparation efforts were conducted prior to the development of the Cycle-

6 Viewing Plan. The time-line committee met during July to construct the detailed time-line.Guest Investigators were notified of the outcome of their proposals shortly thereafter.

The CGRO Cycle-7 NRA and appendices were edited, and will shortly be presented in draft

form to the Program and Project Scientists. Some significant changes to the program, includingthe modified use of the EGRET instrument, and some new policy issues such as the proprietary

data-rights period and PI Team funding guidelines required major changes to certain portions ofthe NRA.

Routine Guest Investigator inquires, too numerous to list, were handled. Subjects included

_instrumentation technical details, program policies and procedures and the proposal evaluation

process.

Several presentations were made to the CGRO Users Committee regarding the Cycle-6 peer-

review and budget review processes and the Cycle-7 NRA.

Project Support: The technical section of the CGRO proposal to the NASA HQ SeniorReview Committee was drafted and distributed to the CGRO Users Committee for feedback. A

finalized version of the proposal was delivered to the project scientist. Real-time support to the

project scientist was provided during the Senior Review Oral defense.

Various statistics regarding the CGRO Guest Investigator program were supplied upon

request to NASA Headquarters and the Project Scientist. Supervision of the SSC GI Programdatabase continued.

Participation, as co-chair, on the local organizing committee for the Fourth Compton

Symposium was continued during the reporting period. A draft "Second-Announcement" wasprepared in collaboration with the CGRO scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory, which will

host the symposium in April of 1997.

CGRO-SSC Group Leader Activities: Various internal CGRO-SSC organizational meetingswere held to coordinate the various ongoing activities.

Planning to offset the impact of forthcoming staffing changes, including the probable departureof the COMPTEL and BATSE Instrument Specialists, at the CGRO-SSC are ongoing. A job

candidate search and review was conducted along with USRA management.

46

Scientific Research: Three articles were submitted tO scientific journals for publication (one asfirst author, 2 as c0-author). Topics included X-ray Nova, Be X-ray Transients and Cataclysmic

Variables. An additional article on X-ray nova is nearly ready for submission.

An invitation to prepare a review article on Blazar QSOs was received from the Fourth

Compton Symposium Scientific Organizing Committee.

47

I Form ApprovedREPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE oM8 No. olo._-o,88

_',jr)hc "_oorrlng burden _or _hts , Ollect]oo of .nformatlOh ,_, -,strrn,}tecl ro ivet,)qe 1 hour oer r_.spon_,e, ,rlducltng the time for reviewing mstrL_ctlOn$, searchlr_q exrstlng data source._.

,ith_.rlng IPd "n.)lrtt,llnlncj the data needed, irld _omolettrl( ] ind rev.ewm_l II1)_ ,:O_l_ctlOn Of mform,ltIon _encl comments rP_ardmcj this burden __$tlmate ot }nv other 3spect of this

, olle'_IiOr_ Ot rlt,_rm,Jt)OrL )rio ucl_ncJ -_uggestlOn'_ for reducing _ho, ,_u(den ",o /¢,l_hlngton HPadCluartE=r_ ';eremites. Olrectorate _or rlfotrn,Jtlon Oic_r,}tlons and RPl_ort$, 12 _5 Jefferson

i),lv_s HIqhw _v, ;u_[e 1204, Arling[on. ,JA 22202.4]02, ._nd to the Othce ,)f M,magement and Budget, P_perwork Reduction Prolect [0704-L1 t88), Wast_mgton. OC 20503.

1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave btar_k) 12. REPORT DATE 13. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVEREDNov. 14, 1996 Contract Technical-4/l-9/30/96

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE $. FUNDING NUMBERS

High Energy Astrophysics Research and Programmatic

Support

6. AUTHOR(S)

L. Angellini et al.

7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) _,ND ADORESS(ES)

Universities Space Research Association (USRA)

10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 212

Columbla, Maryland 210_4

9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

NAS5-32490

8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONREPORT NUMBER

10. SPONSORING / MONITORINGAGENCY REPORT NUMBER

11. SUPPLEMENTARYNOTES

*Staff members prepare individual reports on their activities.listed in the table of contents.

Authors are

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12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE

13. ABSTRACT (Maximum200 words)

This report reviews activities performaed by members of the USRA contract team

during the six months of the reporting period and projected actlvitles durlngeth@

coming six months, f_ctivlties take place at the Goddard Space Flight Center,

wlthing the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. Developments concern

instrumentation, observations.data analysis, and theoretical work in Astrophysics.

Missions supported include: Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics

(ASCA), X-rayTiming Experiment (XTE), X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), Astro-E, High

Energy Astrophysics ScienceArchlve Research Center (HEASARC), and others.

14. SUBJECTTERMS

Astrophysics; research; observations; data analysis; archive;

guest investigator; gamma-ray; x-ray

17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION iOF REPORT Iunclassified

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